Sunday, February 27, 2011

Two lovely vintage graphics from the now sadly defunct Air Gabon, with its delightful, cartoonish icon. Underneath is a wealth of detail of the 3x weekly from Paris CDG Terminal 1 aboard a B747 Combi, with 18 First Class and 46 Business Class and 188 Economy Class seats to Libreville, with onward connections to Pointe-Noire, Luanda and Port-Gentil. Despite the lively colors and the lubricant of the lavish petrol-paradises of its regional network, and its stately ticket office on Rue Roosevelt off the Champs Elysées, Air Gabon has failed. Paris-Libreville, aside from service by Air France, is now served by Gabon Airlines with a rather blandly undecorated leased A340, which still departs terminal 1 and still has three classes of service. Travelers at Nice and Marseille must somehow make their way to Gabon without convenience of direct service.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

A gorgeously designed and stamped first day cover celebrating the first flight of Air Madagascar from Zürich to Antananarivo, 1 November 1986 with Air Mad's B747B . Sadly, Air Mad no longer serves Kloten Airport, and once served Frankfurt and Milan as well, but does still offer Paris and Marsielle. However, today its largest aircraft is the B767-300.